Nixon’s welfare reform failed because it satisfied no political constituency

Evidence

The success of the Family Assistance Plan was short-lived, however. Later that year, the plan was roundly defeated by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, presaging a long-term reshuffling of left and right in the American political landscape. Designed to suit all stakeholders, the final version of the Family Assistance Plan ended up disappointing everyone. Welfare rights activists objected that the plan would reduce benefits to well below the poverty line for most welfare recipients, would eliminate the right to a fair hearing, and would reintroduce arbitrary powers of surveillance. Free market economists such as Friedman thought the plan ended up complicating rather than streamlining the current welfare bureaucracy and did not sufficiently remove disincentives to work. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 233

Categorization

• XREF: Anti-welfare backlash and Friedman’s critique connect to the broader story of conservative/neoliberal welfare retrenchment in later chapters of this book and to Piven-Cloward’s account of welfare expansion/contraction. — connects to: A Nixon welfare plan briefly united figures across the political spectrum — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 230; Nixon abandoned welfare reform due to inflation and political calculation, not policy objections — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 234; Nixon abandoned welfare reform while expanding Social Security when inflation soured his consensus strategy. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 234 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Nixon abandoned welfare reform while expanding Social Security when inflation soured his consensus strategy. #corroborates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 234
• Rationally superior cross-media reform failed for lack of political support. #corroborates (0.75) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 738